Me and my band have been recently practicing ‘somebody that I used to know’ by Gotye and Kimbra for the performance. For this song I had to play bass although piano is my main instrument. So I had to learn new skills and techniques to play. our practice went good to say that we have only been playing it as a band for no more than 6 hours. However there was definitely room for improvement.
INDIVIDUAL STRENGHTS/WEAKNESSES
I was playing the bass to quietly on parts, this is because I was playing with my thumb is not the correct fingering technique as it makes the note quieter and and softer sounding creating a soft tone on the bass. When i watched the video i noticed that I was playing all the correct notes, however in parts I realized I was playing off of rhythm, I am aware of how the rhythm sounds however as I have not performed much in my life I crack under the pressure of an audience. On the footage you can see I have a chord sheet on stage which is highly unprofessional and should not be repeated in future, however this could be justified as it was my fist time performing and I was not that comfortable with the notes. I Was sat down during this performance which is also not professional as the band should be stood up when they are performing in front of an audience, however this is my first time playing bass and I understandably do not own a guitar strap.
GROUP STREGHTS/WEAKNESSES
Our band made many mistakes during this performance which have to be improved upon, however we all carried on playing which is definitely our biggest strength at the current moment. I also noticed when reviewing the footage that their was barely any stage communication between us, apart from the singers who did a good job for our first time performing together. The vocalists can improve as they are not confident in hitting all the notes in the song and they are quiet at parts throughout the song. We all are playing in time which is great news, as this means we have a basic understanding of our notes and rhythm although I struggled with that on parts. I think our biggest weakness as a band currently is the lack of confidence we have when playing in front of an audience which is a big deal as this effects our stage communication and quality of performance as a whole. If I am being honest our stage presence as a whole was very weak because of our lack of confidence and experience while playing together, not standing up while playing definitely did not help our stage presence. We also are so focused on not screwing up it seems we have forgotten to enjoy our selves while performing.
How will you improve?
Our stage confidence can only be improved naturally by preforming in front of more audiences or by practicing a lot more as band, as our confidence increases we will naturally we will communicate more with one another in stage. To improve my bass techniques I will learn about different techniques through my tutors and practice the song with the new techniques. To avoid bringing notes on stage I just have to listen to the song very often and practice as much as I can as an individual and as a band. Me and our Ben(guitar player) need to bring in guitar straps so we can stand up while playing, which will increase our overall stage presence. We could also all need to get super confident before performance date so we do not need to worry about screwing up so we can just enjoy the music and company of each other on stage.
Overall summary of performance
Overall I believe this was a good attempt for our first time performing as a band however as I have discussed needs major improvements. I believe our biggest weaknesses as a band is our lack of confidence as it dramatically effected our performance. However I believe our biggest strength was our knowledge of our parts (e.g. notes, queues, etc).